


What Went Wrong with Season 3 - A Castlevania Review

by madradena



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Reviews
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26389507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madradena/pseuds/madradena
Summary: I've never wrote a review before, but ever since watching Season 3, this has been eating away at me. So here you go, my version of why season 3 wasn't as good as the first 2 seasons. From a writer's / editor's point of view - character development thrown out the window, Alucard missing out on all the action, half episodes without dialog, dub-con teen sex, plot-twists that were not so big twists after all and what I call as "writing backwards." Here you go. Obviously, spoilers for season 3, so if you haven't watched it - why??? - stay away. :)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 5





	What Went Wrong with Season 3 - A Castlevania Review

I know there are tons of reviews out there raving about how awesome season 3 was, how many unexpected twists and turns there were, how good the characters are, but I cannot help having a bit of a bad taste in my mouth reading those. No doubt there are some appealing aspects to this season, like how spectacular the drawing was again, or some of the dialog (mostly Isaac's) was really thought provoking. But when I finished watching it this March, I didn't stand up from my armchair like "Wow, okay, it was shocking but really-really good" (like with season 2), but like "Okay, what have I just been watching?!" I'm not sure if it was only me, or there are others out there who feel something wasn't quite okay, but given the popularity of the "fix season 3" fanfics I'm pretty sure it's not _just_ me.

So let's see what went wrong. 

**Trevor's development**

There was a certain point in the season where he looks at his reflection in a pond and wonders what on Earth he is doing in his life, in his relationship, in the world as it is. And it is totally valid! Here's a loner, who got used to be by himself so much so that he even started to like it, but a cheeky girl appeared and stole the fun in loneliness. That is something you need to process, and something that the viewer is really interested in. But then that bald mayor person appears, they exchange about one and a half sentences about this topic, and then they simply change the subject. Because the plot is so much more important with the stupid monks going bonkers. (Not that it wasn't straightforward what they'd been doing in the basement of the priory all along to begin with.)

What do you use supporting characters for in writing, in a series? They are there to advance the plot, but given that they are minor characters and we are not watching the series because of them, we're not that much interested in them. Most importantly, they are there to let us get to know the main characters better. Here was a good opportunity to get to know Trevor better - the only opportunity throughout season 3 as it was - and it got wasted. It's even more confusing given that we have seen good examples of how this needs to be done, in Isaac and the Captain's conversations.

**Imbalance of Sypha and Trevor**

Okay, this might just be a matter of taste, but I think there really is an imbalance there, where there wasn't before. I say it plainly: Sypha got _too_ strong. Why did she learn how to use her fire-magic for flying for god's sake? _WHEN_ did she learn it? They've been on their way for a month since the end of season 2. According to the rules of basically any fantasy games out there, you first research the spells, you acquire mana points and then you can use your more advanced magic. I know this is a Netflix series which was only based on a game, but seriously what did happen here? Don't tell me it's believable that sitting on a cart with a non-magician for a month can lead you to learn expert level spells. It is spectacular, but where is it from?

And of course, Trevor, being a "simple" hunter with "simple" human capabilities cannot keep up. I joked in my own fanfic about it, Alucard asking him: "What was _your_ upgrade? A second whip?" Because yeah, a second whip? Really? It makes us, the viewers totally miss the point that Trevor is an _amazing_ fighter! We could very well see that in the first two seasons, he almost defeats Alucard who is half-vampire (moreover, half-Dracula) all by himself, he is really awesome. Here? Sypha doesn't simply has his back (which would be totally okay), she saves his ass in situations where in the first two seasons she wouldn't have to. 

Their banter. In the first two seasons, they had this cute banter which now, added to the above two things turned into simple bullying on poor Sypha's part. That kind of teasing works if the subject of the teasing has some other "power" over the teaser. Trevor should be shown as Sypha's anchor somehow, we should see that beside the teasing, she's also relying on him. But instead, we get two lines of Trevor doubting himself for leaving his lonely life, and the fact that he's kept bullied by his girl who is THAT much stronger than him. Swap the participants: make Trevor the super-powered magician and make Sypha the "simple" hunter: you get a pretty arrogant knight in shining armour and a (tomboyish) damsel in distress. Would we enjoy that?

**Half-episodes without a single line of conversation**

I know when there are battles, the characters won't stop to chit-chat that much. But when I see half an episode going by with psychedelic imagery without moving the plot even an inch forward, whereas I'm waiting impatiently to see what's happening with the others - namely Alucard - I'm suddenly not that much interested in what a supporting character can see in his dreams. I had similarly mixed feeling about Isaac's battle with the "ball of humans in the sky". I know it was from the games, and yes, it was spectacular, and amazing, but none of it had really anything to do with ... well, anything. The psych scene was the point where I was like "Okay, I kinda lost track of how we even got here or why for that matter." The "human-ball" scene made me feel like, I'm in a normal RPG game where the protagonist goes from one adventure to the next adventure without more cohesion anywhere than the simple list of missions he has to complete in the game before the end-credits (yesss, I know he went to find the big mirror to put his army through, fine... still a little ...weak somehow).

**Alucard - missing all the action**

And to the biggest failure of the season. Let me get this straight folks. I watch this series because of Alucard, and I'll tell you why. I have an original character whom I developed years ago, white long hair, silvery eyes, thin but mascular form, superhuman power (he's an android) - and his name is Adrian. You get the picture, he looks like Alucard just not "gold" but "silver". And then accidentally I bumped into Alucard: a friend of mine asked if I know Castlevania which then I looked up and was thunderstruck. You can imagine how it feels seeing an almost identical twin of your baby on screen. So no doubt there, I really care about his character, I care about how he is drawn, how his character is evolving, how much screentime he gets as if he was my own. So if he's mistreated ... let's just say I'm not that happy.

So now, you can imagine how I felt watching the long-awaited season 3 and finding that he's not in 2 episodes, and he has only 1 scene in the rest. Okay, screentime is one thing. He can miss the action if there's a _point_. So what _IS_ the point of him missing the action? Here you go my version of what happened.

I'm sure many-many of you are not just readers but writers as well. Do you ever get that feeling when, in your head, you see a really good, dramatic scene, but your plot is not quite there yet, and you'll have to "answer some questions", you have to build up the story to that dramatic point. Now, the dramatic point here was when Sumi and Taka bound Alucard to the bed and then he kills them by using his magic sword that moves on its own.

Let's rewind a few scenes back. Remember, when they were training in the forest and then Sumi makes Alucard take her on his back, and they walk home like that. Remember, where Alucard's sword was? In his hand. When I was watching it, I was kinda surprised. It's an awkward position to carry somebody like that enough, but then it's even more awkward to pick your sword up to carry that too in your hand - so why on Earth didn't he just "tell" the sword to follow? It was perfectly capable of doing just that for 2 seasons. 

Why indeed? Because then Sumi and Taka would have known the capabilities of the sword, so the first thing they would have done is somehow "neutralize" it, before getting into the whole "let's kill the vampire" thing.

What was the original question? Why was Alucard completely taken out of action? Because of just _that_. Because it would have been too obvious for the viewers that he's not using the magical abilities of his sword if he had to be in a fight - meaning what? Maybe that he doesn't trust those two? But then, where would be our huge, shocking end-scene, with Sumi and Taka betraying him in his bed, if he suspects? We would suspect that he suspects - and then again, why would he allow them in his bed, if he suspects? Of course, he wouldn't. So what's the easiest solution to all those _predicaments that a writer should solve_ to lead the reader/viewer up to a satisfyingly shocking scene like the one he was aiming at? _Don't solve them at all!_ Take Alucard out of the action, pretend there are no stray night-creatures anywhere around his Castle, pretend there are no other hunters wanting to sneak a peek into the Castle, nothing. They are in a bubble, where he conveniently doesn't need to use his sword. Because it would sell the big drama at the end.

It wasn't the first time the writer wrote "backwards" like this, submitting everything else under the need to get that big scene going. Remember season 1? Wouldn't you have wanted a little more background to what was Alucard's and Daddy's relationship like? To make us feel how terrible a burden he needs to carry. He has to kill his beloved father, let's see that "beloved" part. Instead, we don't see their relationship - we don't see HIM as it is till the very last scene of the season, because his big entrée was so big, and great, and awesome, that let's just hide him up until that point, even if there would be a more logical course of action. Don't get me wrong, there it worked. That scene was good, Alucard looks awesome half-naked (*wiping drool off chin*), the dialog was good, the fight was good, so everybody was happy. But it's the same logic, the same principals of writing that created both scenes.

**Dub-con, pedophilia and Mary-Sue**

And this is the part where I completely lost the thread of what's happening. Once again, I want to make my excuses: I have no problem with sex scenes, I have no problem with LMBTQ+ topics, I've read them, watched such themed series. Hell, I have no problem with threesomes as it is, I'm not prudish, do whatever you feel happy with, I don't care, I'm not judging. This is just from the point of view of _writing_.

My problem is with the Alucard sex-scene in the end is that Sumi and Taka were firmly established as children throughout the season. He even says "you greedy children", they wrestle playfully on the ground, in a form of bonding. Adult people don't really do that for bonding, or do they? (Did I miss out on something somewhere along the lines of turning an adult?) Essentially, Alucard is making their food, he's dressing them up, he's teaching them. If not a pseudo-parent but definitely a caretaker, definitely their senior (though probably not by a lot of years). And then all of a sudden, they pseudo-rape him. (Is that even a word?) And he's so confused and love-hungry that he just ... lets them. I can also imagine that those two kids were abused as little children (I tried to fill this gap in my own fanfic too). But we get no information on that. I mean if there had been any sort of allusion to the fact that even though they're kids, sex for them is like shaking hands, because, I don't know, they used to be sex-slaves or something and not just "normal" slaves, I'd have understood. But it came completely out of the blue. Their bonding, till that point, was not THAT kind of a bonding at all.

Okay, this will be the paragraph which will make you bash me the most, but if I started this, then I write down everything. There was once, long ago a Hungarian writer who spoke out of his immense wisdom when he said "You cannot write a good novel with a firm hard-on." What I kinda feel here is that the writer really likes Alucard. I mean REALLY _REALLY_ likes him. And let's not judge him, we're reading all those sexy fics because we really-really like him too. But ever wondered why Sumi and Taka are not JUST Sumi? Why? What is the reason for them having to be 2 instead of 1 character? The role they fill in the plot (strictly from a writer's perspective), can be easily, and even much better be filled with only one character instead of two. Think about it, a girl walks up to Alucard's Castle, and they bond, he manages to speak about his mom, his dad, his friends who left him when he was at his lowest, then they even have sex and bamm, she betrays him - that would have punched you in the face! Much more than two teens climbing into his bed out of the blue. Moreover, there's no allusion anywhere that would suggest that Alucard is bi- or homosexual. I know, I understand it's kinda appealing, I have no problems with such fanfics, it's sexy to imagine him e.g. with Trevor or even with Trevor+Sypha and so on, I get it. But as a canon character, who has a very solid background in the games, to my knowledge, he never expressed any kind of interest in any of the guys around him. (He expressed a very subtle and really cute interest in Sypha as a matter of fact in season 2, if you watched carefully.) So then why did this happen? Why did that whole scene and everything that led up to it (with the magical sword kept secret and all) turn out so ... out of place? The answer is in the quote: you cannot write well with a hard-on. Taka is there for the sole reason, that the writer wants to be THERE. He doesn't need to be, a girl would have sufficed to fill the role of seducer-traitor to a straight male character, but Taka is still there. This is what we commonly refer to as a "Mary Sue". Okay, I know it sounds farfetched at first (and in all honestly, I never checked the orientation of the writer as it is, I'm just "working" with what I have, with his writing), but think again. Is it _really that _farfetched? Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging. Let's admit, all fanfic writers do just that, and that's not the first time it ever happened that a canon writer somehow inserted himself in the story. If you ever watched Star Trek TNG: think of Westley. Gene Roddenberry's middle name was Westley and surprisingly enough the character of a 16-year-old boy sits behind the wheel of the Starfleet flagship and saves the crew multiple times! So I get it. But it's a little... not too believably done. (Not that Westley ever was.)

**Big surprises - or ... not?**

What were the big plot-twists at the end? Sumi and Taka betraying Alucard and he starting to spell his name backwards... okay, that was _some_ gentle comedy. Bluntly, he follows in his daddy's footsteps. I elaborated on this enough why this was not really working. But the most important reason is: why? Why on Earth have they done this? Why betray him, why not wait until he fixes the traveling-mechanism of the Castle? (Because they will fix it - I'm sure Alucard would have laughed out loud hearing that, had he not been bound to the bed...) Why not get all the knowledge out of him, all spells, all weapons they can get? We don't know the time-frame. Based on the other plots, you can't be completely sure either. Let that be months. What made them decide they cannot wait? (others waiting in Japan for them to rescue them - really? come on...) Why not give them a pressing reason? But a good one! Yeah, because then we'd have known they wanted to betray him. And it's not that we never got those two all alone. The scene before the big betrayal, they were taking a walk just the two of them. But they were still using figurative speech to discuss what to do next. "I will need to make my own meals again." That was supposed to be the foreshadowing. Yeah, well, not quite enough.

Sypha and Trevor finding the remains of the children in a pit under the apple tree - and the world falls apart for Sypha. Why again? Because the mayor was a psychopath? How did that even come up at all? A good plot twist works if we are led up to it well enough. This was just out of the blue. And honestly, so many people are dying in Castlevania and so much cruelty there is in the humans as well as vampires that it just doesn't seem to add up why that one thing would make Trevor and Sypha feel that till then it was Sypha's cheery-happy life but suddenly it was the dark-pit of Trevor's life. I might have missed something here though.

Lenore betraying Hector. Really? Was that a surprise in _any_ way? And then again, the writer tries to lead us astray by making her tell him that her sisters gave up on building the army, but it's not strong enough. Moreover, from that, you can suspect that something is _totally_ wrong. What would have been a good twist? Lenore giving the rings to her sisters and then betraying them too! Because they seemed to have been a little patronizing throughout to her, and seriously why do all 4 sisters need the rings to control one human? I was waiting for the rings to start to grip them too in black lightnings or something. Bummer that it never happened.

\---

All in all, this shouldn't have turned into a bashing of Castlevania, sorry if it seems that way. I really care for this series, I came to like the characters, the dark themes, the whole atmosphere and imagery, and I feel a little cheated that while the end of season 2 made me go through a bout of depression, season 3 just left me with a feeling of ... ehhh.... (not that I love depression but you get the difference there). I'm more or less sure, many of the above things could have been dealt with if the writer had enough time to develop the story (even a Mary-Sue can be pulled of with enough time on your hands). But I'm pretty sure there wasn't. The season was created in about a year. That's one year for writing, animating and dubbing. That's not a long time at all. Also I'm pretty sure Netflix made some pressure on the creators to include sex as a theme, because yeah, Netflix is all about sex, even if we were perfectly okay without it for almost 3 full seasons. Well, let's hope season 4 will see more Alucard (much more) and some cleaner plots and characters. Thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Reader, as I've established in the review as well, this is not to bash Castlevania. I care about it and love it. This is just my version of where things started to go wrong with the writing. This is from someone who learned from a professional editor how to avoid some easily-avoidable mistakes the hard way, by having to edit, re-edit and re-edit her own texts endlessly. I'm not omniscient, but I like writing so here's my opinion. You're very welcome to argue about each and every point, just let's be kind to each other and civil :) Thank you for reading it!


End file.
